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Imaginary babies: the woman who tried to trap a Bachelor · The Front

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, this is the weekend edition of The Front.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. Love Trapped, one of this year's biggest podcasts,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: is built on a tantalising premise. Shortly after a move
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to Arizona, America's most hated bachelor, Clayton Eckerd, finds himself
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: embroiled in a sudden paternity scandal. It sounds like just
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: another reality TV twist, but this one is a lot darker.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: My guest today knows a thing or two about podcasts.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Kristen Amiott is a senior producer with The Australian and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: producer of The Front and joins me in just a moment.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: You'll hear snippets from Love Trapped throughout this episode.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: This season of The Bachelor is nothing like you've ever
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: seen before.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Clayton Eckerd starred as the lead in season 26 of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: America's Bachelor.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I want to find my person and get married, have kids.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: As the season went on, Clayton whittled the field of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: female contestants down from 30 to 3.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Travelling around the world with these incredible women, how much
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: luckier can.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: One man get?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: During Fantasy Suites Week, he had sex with and professed
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: his love for two women, Gabby Windy and Rachel Reckier.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: The remaining woman, Susie Evans, said she couldn't continue on
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the show if she found out he had sex with
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: or professed his love for either of these women. Clayton
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: flipped his lid, acted blindsided and sent Susie home.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: What I'm about to say is not going to be
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: easy to hear.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: He then brought the other two women together to tell
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: them he was in love with both of them. I
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: am in love with both of you.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: And I also was intimate with both of you.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Humiliated, the women wanted to leave, but somehow Clayton convinced
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: them to stay. Immediately after, Clayton suddenly realised actually he
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: was most in love with Susie. Kristen, I wasn't familiar
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: with this season of The Bachelor, but Clayton Eckerd comes
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: across as like a gold class douche, at least in
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the scenes where he's professing love for three different women.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I know.
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  Speaker 4: It's amazing that there's 26 seasons or has been 26
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: seasons of this show in America alone, and they are
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: still turning up these characters and putting them in fantasy
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: suites together to create the drama after all this time.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: So a year after the season ends, and obviously he
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: didn't find his forever love, he gets entangled with a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: woman named Laura Owens. What happened?
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: So Clayton had moved to Phoenix, Arizona. He got his
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: real estate license. As part of his work there, he
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: came across Laura Owens in a professional capacity. She had
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: connected with him to say that she was looking to
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: purchase property and could he show her around some properties.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Then he says, kind of describes it in a moment
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: of weakness, he invited her over to his place. What
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: occurred on that night, there are differing stories from Laura
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: and from Clayton himself. However, it precipitated what followed in
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: the months after that.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: That night I was looking for a hookup, a thousand percent.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I assumed we both were on the same page because
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: she was coming over at eight o'clock at night on
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: a Friday.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: We know why you're coming.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: You just sent me a photo of your ass.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, now we know this story because of the podcast
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Love Trapped. Who made that and what's it all about?
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: It's made by a journalist named Stephanie Young who had
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: come across this story both through the information that was
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: being shared online about people who were also aware that
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: something was going on, that Clayton Eckert had found himself
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: in the middle of this so-called paternity scandal, and through...
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Information that Laura Owens herself gave to the media about
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Clayton allegedly being the father of her unborn children.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, so she came forward and said that they'd had
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: sex on that night and that she was now pregnant
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: with his twins.
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: It's awkward to go into these details with Clayton, but
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: they all become critical to this story. So I asked
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: him to define what he means when he says he
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: and Laura started hooking up.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know how descriptive you want me to get,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: but like there was no penis and vagina penetration.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: But there was a moment that really should have been
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: on reality TV. This is where she sends him a
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: picture of a positive pregnancy test, the kind of thing
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: that it's a urine sample basically. And then he says, okay,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: come over and do one in real time in my home.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: What happens then?
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  Speaker 4: She does come to his house on that day and
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  Speaker 4: he hands her a pregnancy test that he himself had purchased,
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: and she goes into the bathroom, does the test, comes
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: back out, and wouldn't you know it, it's a positive
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: pregnancy test again. And so that's the moment where, you know,
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: as somebody who had been seeking a definitive answer, he's thinking,
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: how can it get more definitive than this?
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It's positive. How did this happen? But you would have
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to have a pregnant woman's urine to make all these
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: tests positive.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: Exactly. She also sent him a video of her pregnant stomach, allegedly.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: And an ultrasound image that appeared to show her name
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: on it and her being pregnant with twins.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: His position was that they'd never actually had sexual intercourse,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: so this pregnancy was not possible. They might have been
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: intimate in other ways, but he was adamant from the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: beginning that this was not real, right? Exactly. When popular
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: culture and true crime collide, you'll find Internet Salutes, an
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: online community of bloggers, journalists and podcasters. with a love
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: for forensically sifting through court filings, police reports and medical records.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Before Stephanie Young began her reporting for Love Trapped, characters
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: like Dave Neill, Megan Fox and Reality Steve were all
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: over the Laura Owens-Clayton Eckerd case. Generally speaking, the world
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of legit journalism and armchair detectives don't usually mix. But
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: in an interesting move, Stephanie Young included these online sleuths
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: in the Love Trapped podcast. In this way, Love Trapped
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: galvanised a community, drawing creators out of their basement studios
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and into the real world.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: I think the podcast surfaced new information. Certainly the group
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: of online sleuths who came to this story early and
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: who actually from the outset were some of Clayton Eckerd's
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: biggest haters and then kind of understood over time what
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: was happening here and then became some of his biggest
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: supporters who would show up to court hearings in support
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: of him and who would then go back and report
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: on their own channels and their own podcasts and YouTube
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: channels and that sort of thing.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I don't even think the plea deal involves prison.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Just admit to it. Maybe she can't profit off of
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: her crime.
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: And oh my goodness, there's so much.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: It's going to take several videos, but I'm in it
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: to win it. I have been marking up the new
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: documents on the internet. So ask yourself as you're listening
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: to us, what critical evidence did investigators uncover in in
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: this massive file that transformed a messy family court dispute
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: into a multi-count felony fraud case.
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: It did what we've seen a lot of times in
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: that it surfaced new witnesses, new information, but it didn't
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: necessarily cause those legal actions to happen.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: It's so interesting for a journalist and a podcaster, isn't it,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: when you're dealing with a subject who is not quite
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: living in the world of reality?
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: Deals with this in a really thoughtful way. It appears
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: on some level, Laura Owens believed that A, she was
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: in a romantic relationship with Clayton Eckert and that they
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: were destined to be together, if you.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Want to put it like that.
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: And that she had a lot of health issues, but
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: also that this pregnancy was real or that the pregnancy
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: maybe was a gateway to that relationship in a longer
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: term capacity. I think false pregnancy is this sort of
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: documented kind of delusion that it is possible to have.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: Queen Mary I of England, the daughter of Henry VIII, had,
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: I think, several pregnancies where she went all the way
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: through a pregnancy into her confinement and then, you know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: there was no baby. And it was accepted as a
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: kind of mental health episode, really. Very sad and in
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: this case must have been very frightening for him. What
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: Stephanie Young did, and she spends a bit of time
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: actually explaining this, her approach to this and kind of
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: takes listeners behind the scenes of the conversations that she
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: and her production team had been having over the course
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: of this investigation. And that was about why they didn't
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: use the word crazy. She says she didn't want to
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: undermine or undercut the real story here, which is that
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: Clayton Eckert and another man and previous victims had found
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: themselves in, which is a really scary situation, by just
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: writing off this person, this alleged perpetrator.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: As a crazy woman coming up how court cases turn
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: into entertainment in america The reason we're talking about this
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: today is that she's just pleaded guilty in an American
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: court to four counts, three of which relate to him
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and one to another man.
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  Speaker 2: And does the plea contain everything that you and the
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: state have agreed to regarding your sentence? Yes, Your Honor. Okay.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: On the class twos, if you were sentenced to prison,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: the presumptive or usual sentence is five years in the
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Department of Corrections. The minimum sentence is four years. Mitigated
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: sentence is three years. Maximum sentence is 10 years. The
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: aggravated sentence.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Is $ 12.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: 5 million.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: It's an intriguing reflection on the American court system, isn't it?
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Here in Australia, we can't identify participants in family court proceedings,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: for example. And when a matter goes, a criminal matter
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: goes to court, especially if there's going to be a jury,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the obligation is on journalists and anyone commenting on a
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: trial not to say or publish anything that could prejudice
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a jury's deliberations. How does she walk that line legally
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: in the podcast? She does have a lot more freedom
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: than we do here.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: And in fact, That's part of what makes it so
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: compelling is that so many of these legal proceedings, both
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: involving Laura Owens herself.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Your Honour, is it possible for me to show Clayton
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: that I am in fact pregnant because he hasn't seen me?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: No.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: Clayton can be heard on some of them at the
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: moments when he's able to sort of say his piece
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: on certain things and also separate legal proceedings involving Laura Owens' parents.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Most of it's on YouTube.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: then Stephanie uses a lot of that audio and plays
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: quite a lot of it at length, actually. She's able
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: to use that in her audio production. And then also
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: these online sleuths are able to use that as well because.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: It's in the public record.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: It's just in the public record in a very different
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: way than how we're used to seeing it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: This seems like the redemption story Clayton Eckerd could not
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: possibly have seen coming. At the end of Love Trapped,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: how is he presented?
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: He is obviously happy in the most recent episode, but
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: you can tell he's still kind of not prepared to
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: believe that it's real, which when you think about the
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: nature of this story and believing what is real, it's
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: kind of a sad place for it all to land
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: that the resolution is there, but the feeling of vindication isn't.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: She's got a sentencing on October 24. She's potentially facing
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: jail time. In the way of American media, I expect
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: there's now going to be a kind of free Laura campaign.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Is the backlash coming? We'll have to wait and see.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: I think because of the way that this played out
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: and because of the swing in Clayton's favour, you have
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: to wonder that if terabytes of evidence can't generate some
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: kind of free Laura movement, that maybe that won't happen.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Kristen, thank you very much. Thank you. Kristen Amiott is
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: a senior audio producer at The Australian. This episode of
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: The Front was hosted by me, Claire Harvey, and produced
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: by Jasper League. Thanks for joining us on The Front
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: this week. Our team also includes Leah Tamaglou, Tiffany Dimak
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and Joshua Burton.